SK Hynix Will Resume DRAM Production At Chinese Plant Soon

SK Hynix experienced a fire at one of its DRAM manufacturing plants in Wuxi, China on September 4th. Initial reports suggested that the plant would need major repairs as the large black smoke cloud above the facility appeared rather ominous. Because the plant is responsible for approximately 40% of Hynix's DRAM output (which amounts to 12% of global DRAM supply), the plant shutting down for repairs would have severely disrupted the memory market and pricing of both individual chips and memory modules.

Fortunately, the fire was much less severe than it appeared. SK Hynix recently released a statement indicating that the fire was concentrated in the air purification hardware connected to the rooftop which resulted in the large smoke plumes. There was “no material damage” to the machinery used on the manufacturing floor in the production of DRAM chips. The damage was relatively minor and the facility will resume production shortly following minor repairs.

SK Hynix manufactures DRAM and flash memory chips.

A SK Hynix spokesperson Seongae Park was quoted by Bit-Tech in stating that “we expect to resume operations in a short time period.” Also, Hynix indicated that its overall supply volume and DRAM production would not see a major drop.

This is good news for PC OEMs and enthusiasts as it means prices for the chips and resulting hardware should not spike and will stabilize sooner than originally expected.

Pure air is a prerequisite for any semi fab.
The plant is unusable if the clean rooms are contaminated.
So it is irrelevant if the machinery got damaged, if they got dirty they will need complete disassembly and cleaning, not a quick job nor one that anyone has much experience in.
Consequently, the Hynix statement does not reassure.